Santissima Trinità (Holiest Trinity) is a late-

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

architecture,

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

church and former monastery (Badia) located on Via Vittorio Emanuele, corner of Via Santissima Trinità in the city

Catania Catania (, , , Sicilian and ) is the second-largest municipality on Sicily, after Palermo, both by area and by population. Despite being the second city of the island, Catania is the center of the most densely populated Sicilian conurbation, wh ...

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

, southern

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. The monastery is now a science high school.

History and description

The

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

nuns once associated with this monastery, founded in 1351 by a noblewoman Cesaria de Augusta, had initially owned a church on vico San Martino, this was united to the monastery of Portosalvo in 1554, and then to the college of the orphans two years later. Only after the

1693 Sicily earthquake The 1693 Sicily earthquake was a natural disaster that struck parts of southern Italy near Sicily, then a territory part of the Crown of Aragon by the Kings of Spain Calabria and Malta, on 11 January at around 21:00 local time. This earthquake was ...

, did the nuns move here and construction of the present church began soon after, in the 18th century. The façade has a central concave protrusion, a Borromini-esque design attributed to Francesco Battaglia. The portal is preceded by a few stairs made of black lava stone. The broken stone tympanum over the entrance supports two recumbent female sculptures, gazing up to an unusual cartouche of an eye surrounded by rays, an allegory of the eye of God. Each story is flanked by a pilaster and column, both with corinthian capitals. In the center is a Serlian window. On the flanks the facade rises to towers. The interior nave has an elliptical shape, while the apse has a rectangular layout. The interior has a number of notable altarpieces. The first altar on the right houses a ''Baptism of Jesus'' by Olivio Sozzi (a copy of the painting by Vito D'Anna for the church of Origlione in

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

). The third altar houses a ''Madonna appearing to St. John the Baptist on Patmos'' attributed to

Sebastiano Conca Sebastiano Conca (8 January 1680 – 1 September 1764) was an Italian painter. Biography He was born at Gaeta, then part of the Kingdom of Naples, and apprenticed in Naples under Francesco Solimena. In 1706, along with his brother Giovanni, wh ...

. The first altar on the left is a ''Crucifixion'', while the third altar is ''St Benedict and the vision of the Trinity'' by Sozzi.Entry in Catania Reconstructed
by Giuseppe Maimone Publisher, in the comune website.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Trinità Catania Roman Catholic churches in Catania Baroque architecture in Catania